The Berlin LINKE Internationals had their Summer Camp in the Naturfreundehaus Hermsdorf on 4th – 5th September 2021. Here are some photos, videos and workshop minutes from the Event.
Reading The Guardianwrite up on the Norwegian General Election last night compelled me to quickly compile this summary because, well, clearly they don’t follow Norwegian politics with the same zeal as myself. It helps to be able to read Norwegian, be obsessed with Norway, and have a man crush on their great shining star of socialism: Bjørnar Moxnes.
Norway uses a proportional representation system whose name I won’t bother you with. Norway’s 19 regions are allocated a share of 169 seats in Stortinget (literally the big thing) based on both population and area. Parties are allocated seats based on performance within regions (direct mandates) and then allocated extra seats to bring their numbers up to their national vote share IF and only IF they reach 4% of national vote share (called Sperregrensa). You can still win seats if you perform exceedingly well within a region. That is how Moxnes won his lone seat in 2017 by winning enough votes in Oslo to be allocated one regional seat. That is how the Greens (MDG — Miljøpartiet De Grønne) won three mandates this cycle by performing well in three major cities (Oslo, Trondheim and Bergen).
Right wing parties have suffered a collapse after an unprecedented eight years in power in various coalitions. Collectively the bloc has lost 8.4% of its support, with the Christian People’s Party (KrF — Kristelig Folkeparti) falling below the 4% threshold, the Progress Party (FrP — Fremskrittspartiet) losing 23% and conservative Right (Høyre) losing 18.3% of their respective 2017 shares.
However, Moxnes’ Red Party smashed through the 4% threshold this cycle and they are going from 1 seat to 8. It is a truly remarkable and understated achievement (Norwegian news as well can’t help but red bait and downplay this success). They gained 2.3% in national vote share (a relative increase of 95% from their last election), the second largest absolute increase in share behind the rural issues focused Center Party (Senterpartiet), which gained 3.3% (relative increase of 32% from 2017).
The Greens are the best comparison to Red. Both parties had one seat coming in, both parties represent the progressive edge of the political spectrum. Both parties made gains too. The contrasts in results speaks for itself. When asked what mattered more in a debate, ending poverty or saving the environment, Moxnes said poverty while the Green leader (Une Aina Bastholm) said the environment. This is a ridiculous question to ask and should be thrown into the trashcan of ideology where it belongs. But Norwegians have spoken through both Red and the Center Party: foreground your politics in immediate, local concerns.
The centre-right liberal Venstre (literally and confusingly meaning Left) party also pivoted heavily towards the environment and I suspect that between the Socialist Left (SV — Sosialistisk Venstreparti), Venstre, Red, and to a degree the Labour Party all making some environmentally focused pitch, the greens have been completely crowded out and missed the 4% threshold by about 5000 votes. This isn’t exactly devastating. Political power does not lie exclusively in elected chambers. But for the next four years, MDG will lack leverage within parliament. Furthermore, them narrowly missing the threshold strengthens the hand of the upwardly failing leader of the Labour Party: Jonas Gahr Støre.
Despite snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in 2017 in a way that would make Neil Kinnock proud, despite losing vote share in 2021, despite backing noted Labour heavyweight and sex pest Trond Giske, Størewill become PM. Handpicked successor of former Iraq war protestor turned Sec-Gen of NATO Jens Stoltenberg, mini property tycoon, and dull as dishwater; he got his dream majority of Ap-Sp-SV (Labour, Socialist Left, Center Party). This is a repeat of Jens Stoltenberg’s second term coalition in 2005–2013. But the dynamics are very different.
Trygve Slagsvold Vedum of the Center Party campaigned on a platform of rural regeneration, repealing consolidation of small local authorities into larger more centralised ones, stubborn resistance to ending oil extraction and exploration, and removing the much disliked conservative Right. He has firmly promoted a minority Ap-Sp coalition. The classic centrist dad pitch in the Norwegian context. This is an international pattern: the political centre beginning to regain some support on the back of political legwork done by left and green parties, and the centre immediately demanding that these groups be cordoned off from political office.
Will this succeed? Parliamentary arithmetic and political trends make it clear to me that this is unlikely. The only credible threat Vedum can make is an Sp-H-V minority coalition which would give 72 seats. This is equal to the Ap-SV-R-MDG bloc. Such a coalition would be (1) electoral suicide, (2) politically weak, and (3) socioeconomically and environmentally disastrous.
Støre wanted a three-way coalition of Ap-Sp-SV and this coalition has a comfortable majority of 89 mandates. It would not be beholden in parliament to MDG nor Red. It will have a clear four year run to make much needed economic and environmental reforms. Only an idiot would choose to make common cause with parties you campaigned explicitly to remove. It is possible Støre’s neoliberalism might actually favour the minority coalition with Sp. This comes with a cost for Støre who campaigned explicitly on the three-way coalition, calling it his dream majority. It is especially difficult to backtrack given the wind is clearly in the sails of the left and the greens.
This is the central lesson of this election. The Norwegian left is threatening the centre. An openly communist party has doubled its vote share without eating into the share of the socialists. The greens have made appreciable strides in spite of all this and their political agenda is front and centre of the national debate. This is excellent for the left. SV cannot make too many concessions in coalition since it is facing pressure from both communists and environmentalists. Støre cannot fall asleep at the wheel either lest his four years in power disappoint and he bleeds more support to the minor left parties. All the while, the Centre Party is behaving triumphantly, in complete denial that its true political position is very weak.
Norway has voted for real change and insurgent left movements in Western Europe should learn to talk sharply and aggressively against the right. Moxnes quoted Leonard Cohen in his election night speech: “There’s a crack in everything, thats how the light gets in”. In the media, he routinely riles up Sylvi Listhaug (head of the right wing populist Progress Party) and whenever he’s redbaited he retorts with calling it what it is: Fox News nonsense. He spoke belligerently against neoliberalism, he was uncompromising and confident much like the Progress Party’s Siv Jensen was when she led her party to historic successes. The left can punch back and last night it did.
This article originally appeared on Ali Khan’s Medium page. Reproduced with permission
No to War!
Activities and actions marking the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan
Resolution of the LINKE Party Executive Committee from12th September 2021
The Party Executive Committee of Die LINKE calls on all party structures and organizations to join with allies in organizing vigils and activities on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.
On the 20th anniversary of the Afghan war, we remember the many victims who have died. The Costs of War project estimates at least 238,000 people have died in Afghanistan und Pakistan as a direct result of the war; in its Body Count study, the IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) calculates the number killed is likely five to eight times that amount. In addition, 3,600 soldiers of the Western alliance lost their lives, including 59 Bundeswehr soldiers.
We remember in particular the victims of the devastating airstrike in Kunduz, in which 141 civilians were killed. The attack was ordered by a German Army commander.
The acts of terror of 9/11 should never have been countered with war, because war engenders fresh terror. DIE LINKE has been pointing this out for years. We caution against provoking a new war. We oppose the airstrikes and targeted killings currently being carried out by armed US drones.
The assumption that development requires a military presence has proved to be unfounded. From the start, we have criticized the civilian-military cooperation as a fig leaf for military intervention.
We reject a foreign policy geared to geopolitical interests. We demand of the German government, the EU, and NATO member states an immediate and non-bureaucratic intake of all Afghans who have been under threat for years and who are now acutely threatened. UNHCR funding must be increased. Deportations must be permanently stopped.
We will highlight DIE LINKE’s positions from our party platform on the day of action:
No Bundeswehr deployments abroad
Disarm the Bundeswehr, don’t rearm it – No to the Bundeswehr as a global deployment force
Stop arms exports: No profit from war!
A world with no nuclear weapons
Cooperation not confrontation: for an inclusive security system
Civil conflict management and crisis prevention
The national headquarters is creating a campaign package featuring:
“No to war” posters
Printable downloadable design templates for flyers
Social media graphics templates
Speaker pool
The original version of this resolution appears on the LINKE website. Translation: Julie Niederhauser
News from Berlin and Germany: 11th September, 2021
In the next few days, supervisory board meetings have been scheduled for the private sellers Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen as well as for the state-owned buyers Howoge, Degewo and Berlinovo. Here, the responsible bodies must approve the takeover negotiated by the Senate Department of Finance with Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen. In the course of their merger, the two housing groups had announced that they wanted to hand over 20,000 flats to the state, trying to influence the opinion of the expropriation-friendly electorate in their favour. Among the properties to be bought, there are the Falkenhagener Feld in Spandau, the Thermometersiedlung in Lichterfelde and the Neukölln Highdeck-Siedlung. Source: morgenpost
CDU fears the fair housing referendum
Just a few days before the election and the referendum on the socialisation of large housing stocks, the CDU wants to know what knowledge the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had about the support for the initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen from “left-wing extremists” – namely the post-autonomous alliance Interventionist Left (IL). When asked by CDU MP Stephan Lenz how “we” protect ourselves from that “infiltration”, Berlin’s head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Michael Fischer, replied that it was not the task of the agency to “take care of how they defend themselves against it”. Source: nd
Health workers fighting together
Starting this Thursday, the trade union ver.di is calling for an indefinite strike at the Berlin clinics of Charité and Vivantes (including its subsidiaries). In May, the workers gave the public hospital operators and the Berlin Senate a 100-day ultimatum, about better payment. This was followed by several further warning strikes. In the Vivantes subsidiaries, ver.di demands the full adoption of the collective agreement for the public service (TVöD) for all employees. So far, a considerable number of them are not protected by collective agreements and thus earn significantly less. For the hospital workers themselves, ver.di wants to push through a collective agreement on relief.Source: jW
NEWS FROM GERMANY
Headscarf wearers face systematic discrimination
A study finds clear evidence of everyday discrimination against women wearing headscarves in Germany. Using actresses in train stations, who presented themselves with or without headscarves, the researchers noted that some seemed to be migrants, and others not, this was not an issue “per se.” The women wearing a headscarf, though, were treated with prejudice. The actresses dropped some fruits from their shopping bags. Those with headscarves got significantly less help – about eight percentage points lower. The researchers see this, among other results of the study, as scientific confirmation of everyday discrimination for women wearing headscarves. Source; süddeutsche
SPD demand commitment to Nato from coalition partners
Mathematically, a Red-Green-Red coalition is likely to happen after the Bundestag elections. However, SPD leader Saskia Esken is demanding a clear commitment about NATO from any possible coalition partner, which increases the pressure on the Left Party (Die Linke). And Armin Laschet (CDU), the candidate for chancellor of the CDU/CSU, has also renewed his claim that a Red-Green-Red coalition is not a realistic option. Laschet even claimed that if the Left wants to dissolve Nato this could be among the reasons “why these people should not be allowed to sit in a German government”.Source: spiegel
Expert calls on Tesla tofinance the Fangschleuse station expansion
Can the taxpayer in Brandenburg “donate” a railway station to a profit-oriented corporation like Tesla if this corporation or its employees are the almost exclusive users of this new station? “Die Linke” presented an expert opinion about this last Tuesday. According to the expert, Tesla must at least contribute towards financing the extension of the Fangschleuse railway station, which is being built for 50 million euros and exclusively in the interest of the Tesla car factory in Grünheide. The expert also notesthat the construction of such a station exclusively at the taxpayers’ expense would be a violation of European competition law. Source: nd
Human Rights Film Festival Berlin
Around 40 outstanding, inspiring, touching and insightful documentaries
Documentaries are a powerful means to inspire people and raise awareness of human rights violations.
The Human Rights Film Festival Berlin (HRFFB) returns as a hybrid on- & offline festival back to the heart of the German capital from September 16 – October 25, 2021. For 10 days, the festival will focus on stories from all parts of the world that vividly address and reflect on human action, the socio-political status quo and fundamental issues such as democracy, justice, freedom and environmental protection. Through discussions and Q&As with filmmakers, activists and experts, the festival creates a platform to gain new perspectives on our world.
The Human Rights Film Festival Berlin (HRFFB) was launched by the humanitarian and development organisation Aktion gegen den Hunger in 2018. The 2021 festival will be organised by Aktion gegen den Hunger in cooperation with Save the Children, and in partnership with Amnesty International. Each organisation has curated a selection of films, focussing on humanitarian aid and the fight against hunger, as well as children’s and human rights.
This year’s festival – under the patronage of the Saudi Arabian Human Rights Activist Loujain al-Hathloul – will be opened by Sundance winner SABAYA by Hogir Hirori.
Opening speech by Lina al-Hathloul, human rights activist
As Loujain al-Hathloul has been banned from speaking publicly or continuing her activism for the next three years, her sister Lina al-Hathloul, who is fighting tirelessly for her sister’s freedom, will give the festival’s opening speech on her behalf.
Opening film SAYBAYA by Hogir Hirori
The so-called Islamic State attacked the city of Sinjar – murdering its men and kidnapping its women. Thousands are still being held captive as SABAYA (sex slaves). The men and women from the Yazidi Home Centre are their only chance to escape this hell.
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